Since we always get questions about installing newer seats, etc. I figured I'd start a picture thread on how I am doing mine. I have seen people put these seats in our trucks before but have never seen really great pics of how.

From what I have seen others modify the stock "feet" on the 40/20/40 seats and them bolt them through the floor with new holes. With these seats (front) being 3 separate units that would mean 12 new holes in my floor. Not really my style.

I am rather **** in my fabwork and I like everything to be able to bolt together rather than welding if at all possible, but I also don't really like drilling a bunch of new holes in the cab floor - so I make the mounts to fix the stock holes whenever possible.

Now that SOME of my rambling is out of the way - here's a few pics.

New seats are out of a 2004 crew cab and are going in my 1974 crew cab.




The rear has been in place for a while and pics were in my crew build thread, but here they are

Stock rear seat mount for crew cabs


Brackets I had designed and cnc plasma cut


Mock-up


Sand blasted


Welded & painted bracket (stock bracket bolts to floor & new brackets allow seat to bolt onto the assembly)


seat in



As of last night I started building the mounts for the front.

In the past I have made a bracket to put newer seats on the stock sliders (see my gallery for a 60/40 seat), but this time I wanted to keep the power sliders, etc. Therefore I am making a bracket that will catch the stock mounts and the new seats can all mount to those.

Here's the start of that. I will make 1/8" plate structures that bolt to the stock seat mounts and then .5" x 1.5" rectangular tube that the seats will bolt to



Unfortunately the stock "feet" on these things are too big and in the wrong shape/location for our trucks and are not held on by bolts - but rather large rivet type things (that allow the seats to pivot up and down, etc.)


I cut part of the "feet" off but I had to be careful to keep enough space between the feet and my rectangular tube so that the gear that raises and lowers the seat can go all the way down when the seat is raised.
You can see the gear in this not so good pic


Marking and cutting the feet off the bottom of the seats


You can see 2 of the stock feet here vs. the ones I cut in the foreground



That's all for today. More work tonight

 

This is a great tech article in the making as well as show's excellent detail work.
Gives us novice a different option that straight bench seats. Keep up the good work.

 

i am kinda suprised that those seats dont have built in sholder belts....speaking of which do you forsee any problems getting the belts to mount and work properly? i had a friend who put mustand belts and seats in his 70 2 door and had to put the retractor behind the seat to get the angle right for the lock to work right.

 

Yeah - I was kind of hoping for the seats to have the belt in the shoulder but oh well. I got them for too good of a price to pass up.

I have no clue what will be involved in the seat belts. I'll mess with that later. For now I was planning on putting the belts I took out of the truck back in. They are only lap belts, but they are nice aftermarket ones that look to be put in not long before I got the truck. I was going to mount them to the stock holes in the floor. I'll probably run those for a long while before I look at putting shoulder belts in the thing.

Plus if I find a set with the built in belts later I should be able to bolt these ones off their motors and replace with the integral seat belt ones. My concern with those is the load of seat, the person in the seat, etc. is all on the seat mounts in a crash. With the belts that go to the floor and the B pillar it takes a bunch of load off the seat mounts in a crash. Or rather the load is distributed to multiple mounting points in the truck - rather than just the seat mounts.

 

Ok with that out of the way here's a couple pics of last night. Not much go done due to Suzy and I going to dinner with a buddy and his girlfriend. I did get an hour in the shop before heading home to bed though.

floor bracket drilled and bolted to the floor - along with rectangular tubing tack welded to it.



seat sitting in the truck. Keep in mind I had the thing raised all the way, so it will come down a few (3" or so) if I want/need it to.


showing how the cut "feet" from the seat line up with my rear bracket and the tube that will be on the front bracket. I've gotta mess with placement on that front one. I've also got to figure out how I can make the seats bolt to the brackets I am making. It would be really easy to weld them as they sit, but I want everything to come apart if it has to!



Got a meeting tonight - so no work, but I'll look at plating in the rear and making it bolt on tomorrow - as well as starting that front mount.

 

Slight update. I spent too much time playing with the sandblaster, rebuilding a sheet metal punch and cleaning a set of seats for a buddy last night - so not a ton got done.

I did work a bit on the front seat bracket though.

Front floor plate made. It's just like the rear - slightly smaller


Squaring up front rectangular tube



This raised X in the middle of the floor is in the way of the rectangular cross piece.


Most people would beat on it with a 2 lb. sledge to flatten it - not me....



more to be done this weekend!

 

Glad to see you are using designer shop towels:
My supply store ran out of the "Liz Claiborne" line of shop towels.
Next thing you know, you will be wearing some Donna Karen (DKNY) welding gloves.......

Dont know why thats so funny to me, but I cant stop laughing.
Oh yeah, your 14B disc brake brackets are done. I better go get some building done myself. This disc brake thing can be done in about 20 minutes with normal hand tools. Impact cuts the time down even further. You will be amazed.

Seats look real nice man. I like these better than the last ones.

 

that's funny. I've never even noticed that on the towel. It is the cover for my plasma cutter. Keep grinding dust, etc. off it. Not even sure where it came from, but it was the biggest and cleanest towel/rag I had.

Good deal on the disk setups - keep me posted. I have a 14b here if you want a tester - hahaha

 

YOurs wont be the demo. Thats what my junk is for. I had enough "black" material to make a few sets. I made some for practice and to get some of the bugs wroked out. I plane on breaking the things so they will fit flat to the existing flange and use fewer parts. This keeps cost and materials down even though it adds two extra steps to fabrication. Time will tell. Mine are trial and error, yours will be the real deal, and closer to the production stuff. Next set will be Stainless. I have quite a bit of material left from some other stuff that will never (maybe not never) used and this might just be the right place for this stuff.
G&J had some sweet aircraft bolts that just happen to be the same size. These 12 point bolts are drilled for saftey wire. You know how I dig that stuff, so the first two axles will be all saftey wired and such. Just some cool points and nothing that makes a difference, but adds to the conversation when we are drinking some coldies.



Now that I have completely hi-jacked you thread, I see you are clearancing the cross brace. The floor had some support pieces and you chose to gain clearance at the seat bracket itself right? Good choice. How do you plan on gaining some strength back? Looks as though you will be removing over 50% of the material. IS strength here a concern? I know it is not like you to leave this untouched. WOuld boxing that in provide you with the look and the strength you are after?

 

Good deal on the brake brackets - keep me informed!

As for the above - you know me Ed - do you think I'd leave something half a$$ed

It will be plenty stong, and plenty good looking. I guess that is my downfall though and why nothing is done - I'm concerned about how god seat brackets look and they are UNDER the seat where no one will see them

 

That seat is going to look real good. Nice work and good pics for reference.

 

I got a bit of work done this weekend, but I didn't have as much time in the shop as I had hoped

It didn't help that I also had a little brain fart and had to re-do part of this...

I made the mistake of not double checking my marks in the front cross bar before cutting. Therefore the cut out for the X in the floor is on the wrong side. Time to make a new one...


New one cut and partially plated in


Making templates


Plates cut, and tacked


Mounts out and welded




More to come...

 

WOw, thats a giant drum you have layin around there.

 

yeah - you should have seen the look on the guys face when I ran off with that thing....


He smiled!


Thanks again. It should be the perfect base for my vice stand

 

so I got back in the shop last and got a bit more cutting and plating done.

I forget how long this stupid plating takes sometimes... Especially when I've gotta drill 3/4" holes for the dimple dies and I don't have a 3/4" hole saw and I am still waiting for the new punch/die sets for my sheet metal punch Those drill bit in the pics are the final few - I had to start small and work up...

A couple more plates and they might be ready to hold the seats

new plates - after 1/2 hour or more of drilling and dimpling (this is only 1 side)


clamped in and welding started


welding


getting closer...



And a hint of more to come...